Ah, fond are the memories of my youth when I played Diablo 2 and advanced to playing hardcore. The slightest misstep and my high-level characters would die, forever roaming the servers as invisible robed ghosts.

This made me think. After having played Oolite now for a good 5 months and having advanced and aced my way through many a combat situation, I have become overly reliant on the Space bar. And I am not talking the Red Pincers, the Pink Slug or the Carnal Pleasures, unfortunately.
I simply mean that I make decision after decision that would make Darwin scratch his head in disgust. But boy is it fun!

However, wouldn't it be more fun to play as though every blue milk run could be the last?

- One death and it's start over time
(Handwavium explanation: while the ship might explode, the Commander will still float through space in his EVA suit and no insurance company will touch him with a ten-foot pole. So it's off to the beginning again.)
- Use only savegames to continue from where I left off (sadly, I have felt forced to enable quicksaves, as the version 1.77 crashes sometimes, leaving me with an awful lot of wasted hours).
- Begin with an Adder and 100 credits. I foresee many deaths in the wee hours of the process. Here is a list of possible death combinations for a new vanilla Adder commander:

a. A missile launch from any hostile craft = death
b. One Thargoid witchspace stall on an unlucky place with no leftover fuel = death.
c. One Thargoid witchspace stall on a lucky place with a little leftover fuel = possible death within 15 seconds of warming up the hyperdrive.
d. A bad barbrawl using the Furball OXP = death (more on that later in the post).
e. A poorly aimed shot at a GalCop station resulting in Fugitive status = death.
f. A badly placed trade of a little slaves or narcotics and an unlucky GalCop scanning of the bounty status = possible death (unless I can get to the Main Space Station first)
g. Retaliating hostile fire = possible death due to possible missile launch

- Adjust prices of heavy lasers to a more interesting amount: Beam Lasers: 8.000, Military Lasers: 60.000.
- Play with my current list of OXPs (scroll down to bottom of post for this), eliminating some of them if they become too difficult to handle. A minimum of Ship OXPs, since they tend to be very poorly balanced for 1.77.
- Use my own moral compass, that means no cheating.
- Keep a steady updated log on here (will attempt daily updates if my wife will let me).

Strategy:

- Leave Lave. Being a Multi-government tech lvl 5 system is not good for my Adder's health, nor my own for that matter.
- Trade the living daylights out of the first surrounding systems that have at leasta dictatorship and a tech level of 7.
- The Witchspace drive is my 15 second lifesaver. Cross my fingers that I have enough fuel/I won't get stopped by Thargoids/pirates won't follow me through the wormhole.
- Find and follow GalCops, especially Navy Frigates (!), enjoy the peace and quiet of space and the sound of the fusion engines running.
- Use Fuel Stations whenever I can. Fuel means jumps and life!
- Use Constores! Oh the precious Constores! Cheap gold and platinum, oh yes! Expensive anything else. As an added plus the stores often only have 2 Tonnes of any cargo which fits well with my tiny cargo hold.
- Use GalCop Vouchers! 25% off 9 tanks of fuel adds up!
- Use Sothis trade stations. They often have cheap specialty goods that can be sold on the normal market with a 150% markup.
- Watch out for laser fire in the background. Laser fire means ships and pirates. Pirates mean death!
- First equipment: fuel injectors (600)! I consider these more important than an Escape Capsule, since they can be used to avoid any missile and most pirates, with the single caveat that I require a lot of fuel. This is where trading between close systems and using fuel stations come in handy.
Buy the second I have 650+ credits!
- Second equipment: Escape Capsule (1000). Yes, for the love of all that is slimy and resemble a lobster! Use this the second trouble is knocking on the door. This means any pirate encounter of 2+ that has injectors to follow me.
Buy the second I have 1100+ credits!
- Third equipment: Auto-eject (500). Because my finger movements are not fast enough to move on their own when I am being attacked.
Buy the second I have 600+ credits.
- Fourth equipment: I am at a loss here. Maybe Advanced Space Compass. It's pretty good to know what bars and trade centers are around the minute I enter a new system. It might even be worth doing in-system trading with this baby.
Wait until I have at least a couple of thousands credits in spare for addition Escape Capsules!

I will keep you posted tomorrow to let you know how far I have gotten!

Hardcore aka Ironman. It can actually be difficult to play when you're used to the luxury of being able to reload a game.

I've sometimes thought, if Oolite was real, I think I'd just spend my life doing the milkrun between Isinor and Qutiri, with the occasional trip to Tionisla for ship upgrades. At least, that would be my day job. Weekends would be spent planetside on one of the three, probably Tionisla, given it's the highest tech system of the three.

Well, here's my latest tip for Ironman play: when you're using injectors in combat, note that pirates behind you don't always notice when you slow down again. I got all the way to 3379 kills only to have an Asp unexpectedly try to cram itself up my exhausts.

The Isinor-Qutiri run gets even sweeter once you find out there's a rock hermit lurking in a dinky little asteroid field way outside the spacelanes. If you can get the hang of finding them most of the time, it's well worth doing a triangular trade of liquor to the hermit, metals and ores to Qutiri, and computers to Isinor.

For the fourth piece of equipment, I'd get an ECM system or a Scanner Targeting Enhancement. They're both cheap and will save your backside a *lot* of times. Or get that Advanced Space Compass and try the Rock Hermit Locator OXP...

rayner wrote:Well, here's my latest tip for Ironman play: when you're using injectors in combat, note that pirates behind you don't always notice when you slow down again. I got all the way to 3379 kills only to have an Asp unexpectedly try to cram itself up my exhausts.

Great and lifesaving tip! Thanks!

rayner wrote:The Isinor-Qutiri run gets even sweeter once you find out there's a rock hermit lurking in a dinky little asteroid field way outside the spacelanes. If you can get the hang of finding them most of the time, it's well worth doing a triangular trade of liquor to the hermit, metals and ores to Qutiri, and computers to Isinor.

For the fourth piece of equipment, I'd get an ECM system or a Scanner Targeting Enhancement. They're both cheap and will save your backside a *lot* of times. Or get that Advanced Space Compass and try the Rock Hermit Locator OXP...

I hadn't thought of simply doing the same runs over and over, but the rock hermit is a good tip!
I would prefer to keep expanding missions as ship and equipment begins to grow, just to keep it interesting.

Rock hermits often offer very good prices for furs - and narcotics. Find a hermit on the way into a poor agri system, check its prices - if favourable, proceed to the main station, fill your hold with furs and take to the hermit. If there's enough on the main station market, go back for more.

rayner wrote:Well, here's my latest tip for Ironman play: when you're using injectors in combat, note that pirates behind you don't always notice when you slow down again. I got all the way to 3379 kills only to have an Asp unexpectedly try to cram itself up my exhausts.

Owww.. that had to hurt.. my sympathies..

Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied